Branch: Luftwaffe
Born: 12 January 1893 in Rosenheim, Bavaria, Germany.
Died: 15 October 1946 in Nuremberg, Germany.
Ranks:
Reichsmarschall 19 July
1940
Generalfeldmarschall
4 February 1938
Generaloberst 20 April
1936
General der Flieger 1
March 1935
General der Infanterie
31 August 1933
Hauptmann 8 June 1920
Oberleutnant 18 August
1917
Leutnant 20 January 1914
Fähnrich 13 May 1911
Decorations:
Commands:
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military
leader, and a leading member of the National Socialist Party.
He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and
a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known
as The Blue Max. He was the last commander of Jagdgeschwader
1, the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen, The
Red Baron.
In 1935, Göring was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the
Luftwaffe (German: Air Force), a position he held until the
final days of World War II. By mid-1940, Göring was at
the peak of his power and influence.
Adolf
Hitler had promoted him to the rank of Reichsmarschall,
making Göring senior to all other Wehrmacht commanders,
and in 1941
Adolf
Hitler designated him as his successor and deputy in all
his offices. By 1942, with the German war effort stumbling
on both fronts, Göring's standing with
Adolf
Hitler was very greatly reduced. Göring largely withdrew
from the military and political scene to enjoy the pleasures
of life as a wealthy and powerful man. After World War II,
Göring was convicted of war crimes and crimes against
humanity at the Nuremberg Trials. He was sentenced to death
by hanging, but committed suicide by cyanide ingestion two
hours before he was due to be hanged just after midnight.
Early life
Göring was born on 12 January 1893 at the Marienbad sanatorium
in Rosenheim, Bavaria. His father Heinrich Ernst Göring
31 October 1839 to 7 December 1913 had been the first Governor-General
of the German protectorate of South West Africa (modern-day
Namibia) as well as being a former cavalry officer and member
of the German consular service. Göring had among his
paternal ancestors Eberle/Eberlin, a Swiss-German family of
high bourgeoisie.
Göring was a relative of such Eberle/Eberlin descendants
as the German aviation pioneer Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
German romantic nationalist Hermann Grimm 1828 to 1901, an
author of the concept of the German hero as a mover of history,
whom the Nazis claimed as one of their ideological forerunners
the industrialist family Merck, the owners of the pharmaceutical
giant Merck German Baroness Gertrud von Le Fort, one of the
world's major Catholic writers and poets of the 20th century,
whose works were largely inspired by her revulsion against
Nazism and Carl J. Burckhardt, Swiss diplomat, historian,
and President of the International Red Cross.
In a historical coincidence, Göring was related via the
Eberle/Eberlin line to Jacob Burckhardt 1818 to 1897, a great
Swiss scholar of art and culture who was a major political
and social thinker as well an opponent of nationalism and
militarism, who rejected German claims of cultural and intellectual
superiority and predicted a cataclysmic 20th century in which
violent demagogues, whom he called terrible simplifiers, would
play central roles.
Göring's mother Franziska Fanny Tiefenbrunn 1859 to 15
July 1923 came from a Bavarian peasant family. The marriage
of a gentleman to a lower class woman occurred only because
Heinrich Ernst Göring was a widower. Hermann Göring
was one of five children his brothers were Albert Göring
and Karl Göring, and his sisters were Olga Therese Sophia
Göring and Paula Elisabeth Rosa Göring, the last
of whom were from his father's first marriage. Although antisemitism
had become rampant in Germany at that time, his parents were
not antisemitic.
Göring's younger brother Albert Göring was opposed
to the National Socialist Regime and helped Jews and dissidents
in Germany during the Nazi era, much like Oskar Schindler.
In one instance, Albert helped Hermann himself by intervening
on behalf of one of his wife's film colleagues, Henny Porten.
Henny, an erstwhile sweetheart of German cinema, found herself
professionally ostracised after she refused to divorce her
Jewish husband, Dr. William von Kaufman. After meeting Henny
in a Hamburg hotel and learning of her predicament, Emmy Göring
pleaded with Hermann to call his younger brother Albert, who
was, at the time, the technical director of Tobis-Sascha Filmindustrie
AG in Vienna. Hermann made the call, and Albert duly arranged
Henny a film contract in Vienna, ensuring her a livelihood.
Göring's nephew Hans-Joachim Göring was a pilot
in the Luftwaffe with III Gruppe./ZG 76, flying the
Messerschmitt
Bf 110. Hans-Joachim was killed in action on 11 July 1940,
when his
Bf
110 was shot down by Hawker Hurricanes of No. 78 Squadron
RAF. His aircraft crashed into Portland Harbour, Dorset, England.
Early life and Ritter von Epenstein
Göring later claimed his given name was chosen to honor
the Arminius who defeated the Roman legions at Teutoburg Forest.
However, the name was possibly to honor his godfather, a Christian
of Jewish descent born Hermann Epenstein. Epenstein whose
father was an army surgeon in Berlin became a wealthy physician
and businessman and a major if not paternal influence on Göring's
childhood. Hermann's father held diplomatic posts in Africa
and in Haiti, climates considered too harsh for a young European
child. This resulted in lengthy separation from his parents,
and much of Hermann's very early childhood was spent with
governesses and with distant relatives. Heinrich Göring
retired circa 1898, and had to support his large family solely
on his civil service pension. Thus for financial reasons the
Görings became permanent house guests of their longtime
friend, Göring's probable namesake. Epenstein had acquired
a minor title (through service and donation to the Crown)
and was now Hermann, Ritter von Epenstein.
von Epenstein purchased two largely dilapidated castles, Burg
Veldenstein in Bavaria and Burg Mauterndorf near Salzburg,
Austria, whose very expensive restorations were ongoing by
the time of Hermann Göring's birth. Both castles were
to be residences of the Göring family, their official
caretakers until 1913. Both castles also ultimately became
Hermann's property.
According to some biographers of both Hermann Göring
and his younger brother Albert Göring, soon after the
family took residence in his castles, von Epenstein began
an adulterous relationship with Frau Göring and may in
fact have been Albert's father. (Albert's physical resemblance
to von Epenstein was noted even during his childhood and is
evident in photographs.) Whatever the nature of von Epenstein's
relationship with his mother, the young Hermann Göring
enjoyed a close relationship with his godfather.
Göring was initially unaware of von Epenstein's Jewish
ancestry. He was enrolled in a prestigious Austrian boarding
school, where his tuition was paid by von Epenstein. Then
he wrote an essay in praise of his godfather and was mocked
by the school's antisemitic headmaster for professing such
admiration for a Jew. Göring denied the allegation, but
was then presented with proof in the Semi-Gotha, a book which
catalogued German-speaking nobility of insufficient status
to be listed in the Almanach de Gotha. (von Epenstein had
bought his title and castles, and so was relegated to the
lesser reference.) Göring remained steadfast in his devotion
to his family's friend and patron so adamantly that he left
the school and used what money he had to purchase a train
ticket home. The action seems to have tightened the already
considerable bond between godfather and godson.
Relations between the Göring family and von Epenstein
became far more formal during Göring's adolescence (causing
Mosley and other biographers to speculate that perhaps the
theorized affair ended naturally or that the elderly Heinrich
discovered he was a cuckold and threatened its exposure).
By the time of Heinrich Göring's death, the family no
longer lived in a residence supplied by von Epenstein, or
seemed to have much contact at all with him. The family's
comfortable circumstances indicate the Ritter may have continued
to support them financially. Late in his life, Ritter von
Epenstein married Lily, a singer who was half his age. He
bequeathed her his estate in his will, but requested that
she in turn bequeath the castles at Mauterndorf and Veldenstein
to his godson Hermann upon her own death.
World War I
Göring was sent to boarding school at Ansbach, Franconia
and then attended the cadet institutes at Karlsruhe and the
military college at Berlin Lichterfelde. Göring was commissioned
in the Prussian army on 22 June 1912 in the Prinz Wilhelm
Regiment (112th Infantry), headquartered at Mulhouse as part
of the 29th Division of the Imperial German Army.
During the first year of World War I, Göring served with
an infantry regiment in the Vosges region. He was hospitalized
with rheumatism resulting from the damp of trench warfare.
While he was recovering, his friend Bruno Loerzer convinced
him to transfer to the Luftstreitkräfte (air combat force)
of the German army. Göring's transfer request was turned
down. But later that year, Göring flew as Loerzer's observer
in Feldfliegerabteilung 25 (FFA 25) - Göring had informally
transferred himself. He was detected and sentenced to three
weeks' confinement to barracks. The sentence was never carried
out: by the time it was imposed Göring's association
with Loerzer had been regularized. They were assigned as a
team to FFA 25 in the Crown Prince's Fifth Army though it
seems that they had to steal a plane in order to qualify.
They flew reconnaissance and bombing missions for which the
Crown Prince invested both Göring and Loerzer with the
Iron Cross, first class.
On completing his pilot's training course he was posted back
to FFA 2 in October 1915. Göring had already claimed
two air victories as an Observer (one unconfirmed). He gained
another flying a Fokker E.III single-seater scout in March
1916. In October 1916, he was posted to Jagdstaffel 5, but
was wounded in action in November. In February 1917, he joined
Jagdstaffel 26. He now scored steadily until in May 1917,
when he got his first command, Jasta 27. Serving with Jastas
5, 26 and 27, he claimed 21 air victories. Besides the Iron
Cross, he was awarded the Zaehring Lion with swords, the Friedrich
Order and the House Order of Hohenzollern with swords, third
class, and finally in May 1918, the coveted Pour le Mérite.
On 7 July 1918, after the death of Wilhelm Reinhard, the successor
of The Red Baron, he was made commander of the famed Flying
Circus, Jagdgeschwader 1.
In June 1917, after a lengthy dogfight, Göring shot down
Australian pilot Frank Slee. The battle is recounted in The
Rise and Fall of Hermann Göring. Göring landed and
met the Australian, and presented Slee with his Iron Cross.
Years after, Slee gave Göring's Iron Cross to a friend,
who later died on the beach during the Normandy Landings.
Also during the war Göring had through his generous treatment
made a friend of his prisoner of war Captain Frank Beaumont,
a Royal Flying Corps pilot. It was part of Goering's creed
to admire a good enemy, and he did his best to keep Captain
Beaumont from being taken over by the Army.
Göring finished the war with 22 confirmed kills.
Because of his arrogance, Göring's appointment as commander
of Jagdgeschwader 1 had not been well received. When demobilized
during the first weeks of November 1918, Göring and his
officers spent most of their time in the Stiftskeller, the
best restaurant and drinking place in Aschaffenburg. Yet he
was the only veteran of Jagdgeschwader 1 never invited to
post-war reunions.
Göring was genuinely surprised (at least by his own account)
at Germany's defeat in World War I. He felt personally violated
by the surrender, the Kaiser's abdication, the humiliating
terms, and the supposed treachery of the post-war German politicians
who had goaded the people to uprisingand who had stabbed our
glorious Army in the back thinking of nothing but of attaining
power and of enriching themselves at the expense of the people.
Ordered to surrender the planes of his squadron to the Allies
in December 1918, Göring and his fellow pilots intentionally
wrecked the planes on landing. This action paralleled the
scuttling of surrendered ships. Typical for the political
climate of the day, he was not arrested or even officially
reprimanded for his action
Post-war
He remained in flying after the war, worked briefly at Fokker,
tried barnstorming, and in 1921 he joined Svensk Lufttrafik,
a Swedish airline. He was also listed on the officer rolls
of the Reichswehr, the post World War I peacetime army of
Germany, and by 1933 had risen to the rank of Generalmajor.
He was made a Generalleutnant in 1935 and then a General in
the Luftwaffe upon its founding later that year.
Göring as a veteran pilot was often hired to fly businessmen
and others on private aircraft. He worked in Denmark and Sweden
as a commercial pilot. One wintry evening he was hired by
Count Eric von Rosen to fly him to his castle from Stockholm.
Invited to spend the night there, it may have been here that
Göring first saw the swastika emblem, a family badge
which was set in the chimney piece around the roaring fire.
This was also the first time Göring saw his future wife.
A great staircase led down into the hall opposite the fireplace.
As Göring looked up he saw a woman coming down the staircase
as if toward him. He thought she was very beautiful. The count
introduced his sister-in-law Baroness Carin von Kantzow née
Freiin von Fock, 1888 to 1931 to the 27 year old Göring.
Carin was a tall, maternal, unhappy, sentimental woman five
years Göring's senior, estranged from her husband and
in delicate health. Göring was immediately smitten with
her. Carin's eldest sister and biographer claimed that it
was love at first sight. Carin was carefully looked after
by her parents as well as by Count and Countess von Rosen.
She was also married and had an eight-year-old son Thomas
to whom she was devoted. No romance other than one of courtly
love was possible at this point.
First marriage
Carin divorced her estranged husband, Nils Gustav von Kantzow,
in December 1922. She married Göring on 3 January 1923
in Stockholm. von Kantzow behaved generously. He provided
a financial settlement which enabled Carin and Göring
to set up their first home together in Germany. It was a hunting
lodge at Hochkreuth in the Bavarian Alps, near Bayrischzell,
some 50 mi (80 km) from Munich.
Early Nazi
Göring joined the National Socialist Party in 1922 and
took over leadership of the Sturmabteilung (SA) as the Oberster
SA-Führer. After stepping down as SA Commander, he was
appointed an SA-Gruppenführer (Lieutenant General) and
held this rank on the SA rolls until 1945.
Adolf
Hitler later recalled his early association with Göring
thus:
I liked him. I made him the head of my S.A. He is the only
one of its heads that ran the S.A. properly. I gave him a
disheveled rabble. In a very short time he had organised a
division of 11,000 men.
At this time, Carin who liked
Adolf
Hitler often played hostess to meetings of leading Nazis
including her husband,
Adolf
Hitler,
Rudolf
Hess,
Alfred
Rosenberg and
Ernst
Röhm.
Göring was with
Adolf
Hitler in the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich on 9 November
1923. He marched beside
Adolf
Hitler at the head of the SA. When the Bavarian police
broke up the march with gunfire, Göring was seriously
wounded in the groin.
Addiction and exile
Although Göring was stricken with pneumonia, Carin arranged
for him to be spirited away to Austria. Göring was in
no way fit to travel and the journey may have aggravated his
condition, although he did avoid arrest. Göring was X-rayed
and operated on in the hospital at Innsbruck. Carin wrote
to her mother from Göring's bedside on 8 December 1923
describing his terrible pain: . in spite of being dosed with
morphine every day, his pain stays just as bad as ever. This
was the beginning of his morphine addiction, which lasted
until his imprisonment at Nuremberg. Meanwhile in Munich the
authorities declared Göring a wanted man.
The Görings acutely short of funds and reliant on the
good will of Nazi sympathizers abroad moved from Austria to
Venice, then in May 1924 to Rome via Florence and Siena. Göring
met Benito Mussolini in Rome. Mussolini expressed some interest
in meeting
Adolf
Hitler, by then in prison, on his release. Personal problems,
however, continued to multiply. Göring's mother had died
in 1923. By 1925, it was Carin's mother who was ill. The Görings
with difficulty raised the money for a journey in spring 1925
to Sweden via Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Danzig.
Göring had become a violent morphine addict and Carin's
family were shocked by his deterioration when they saw him.
Carin, herself an epileptic, had to let the doctors and police
take full charge of Göring. He was certified a dangerous
drug addict and placed in the violent ward of Långbro
asylum on 1 September 1925. Biographer Roger Manvell quoted
a Stockholm psychiatrist who had seen him before he was committed
to Långbro: Göring was very violent and had to
be placed in a straitjacket but was not insane.
The 1925 psychiatrist's reports claimed Göring to be
weak of character, a hysteric and unstable personality, sentimental
yet callous, violent when afraid and a person whose bravado
hid a basic lack of moral courage. Like many men capable of
great acts of physical courage which verge quite often on
desperation, he lacked the finer kind of courage in the conduct
of his life which was needed when serious difficulties overcame
him.
At the time of Göring's detention, all doctors' reports
in Sweden were matters of public record. In 1925, Carin sued
for custody of her son. Nils von Kantzow, her ex-husband,
used a doctor's report on Carin and Göring as evidence
to show that neither of them was fit to look after the boy,
and so von Kantzow kept custody. The reports were also used
by political opponents in Germany.
Carin Göring died of heart failure on 17 October 1931.
Possible responsibility for the Reichstag fire
Marinus van der Lubbe an ex-Communist radical was arrested
on the scene and claimed sole responsibility for the Reichstag
fire. But many observers believed that the Nazis set the fire
to justify the subsequent crackdown. Göring in particular
was suspected: he was first on the scene, and both
Adolf
Hitler and
Joseph
Goebbels were apparently surprised by the news. At Nuremberg,
General
Franz
Halder testified that Göring admitted responsibility:
At a luncheon on the birthday of
Adolf
Hitler in 1942.Göring said. The only one who really
knows about the Reichstag is I, because I set it on fire!
With that he slapped his thigh with the flat of his hand.
William L. Shirer in his seminal study The Rise and Fall Of
The Third Reich states that all of the evidence points strongly
to the most unusual of possible scenarios being what actually
happened, that Van der Lube coincidentally was present to
start another fire at the same time that Göring and his
accomplices also went into the Reichstag to start a different
fire. While admitting how strange it sounds, the evidence
that Shirer presents in his book makes a compelling case for
this unusual situation.
Göring in his own Nuremberg testimony denied this story.
It remains unclear whether Göring was responsible for
the fire, although it seem fairly certain that van der Lubbe
did enter the Reichstag with the intent to commit arson. The
following is a transcript excerpt from the Nuremberg Trials:
GOERING: This conversation did not take place and I request
that I be confronted with
Franz
Halder. First of all I want to emphasize that what is
written here is utter nonsense. It says, The only one who
really knows the Reichstag is I. The Reichstag was known to
every representative in the Reichstag. The fire took place
only in the general assembly room, and many hundreds or thousands
of people knew this room as well as I did. A statement of
this type is utter nonsense. How
Franz
Halder came to make that statement I do not know. Apparently
that bad memory, which also let him down in military matters,
is the only explanation.
MR. ROBERT JACKSON: You know who
Franz
Halder is?
GOERING: Only too well.
GOERING: That accusation that I had set fire to the Reichstag
came from a certain foreign press. That could not bother me
because it was not consistent with the facts. I had no reason
or motive for setting fire to the Reichstag. From the artistic
point of view I did not at all regret that the assembly chamber
was burned I hoped to build a better one. But I did regret
very much that I was forced to find a new meeting place for
the Reichstag and, not being able to find one, I had to give
up my Kroll Opera House, that is, the second State Opera House,
for that purpose. The opera seemed to me much more important
than the Reichstag.
MR. ROBERT JACKSON: Have you ever boasted of burning the Reichstag
building, even by way of joking?
GOERING: No. I made a joke, if that is the one you are referring
to, when I said that, 'after this, I should be competing with
Nero and that probably people would soon be saying that, dressed
in a red toga and holding a lyre in my hand, I looked on at
the fire and played while the Reichstag was burning'. That
was the joke. But the fact was that I almost perished in the
flames, which would have been very unfortunate for the German
people, but very fortunate for their enemies.
MR. ROBERT JACKSON: You never stated then that you burned
the Reichstag?
GOERING: No. I know that Herr Rauschning said in the book
which he wrote, and which has often been referred to here,
that I had discussed this with him. I saw Herr Rauschning
only twice in my life and only for a short time on each occasion.
If I had set fire to the Reichstag, I would presumably have
let that be known only to my closest circle of confidants,
if at all. I would not have told it to a man whom I did not
know and whose appearance I could not describe at all today.
That is an absolute distortion of the truth.
Second marriage
During the early 1930s Göring was often in the company
of Emmy Sonnemann 1893 to 1973, an actress from Hamburg. He
proposed to her in Weimar in February 1935. The wedding took
place on 10 April 1935 in Berlin and was celebrated like the
marriage of an emperor. They had a daughter, Edda Göring
born 2 June 1938 who was reportedly named after Countess Edda
Ciano, eldest child of Benito Mussolini, although other sources
say she was named after a friend of her mother. Edda's Godfather
was
Adolf Hitler.
Nazi potentate
When
Adolf
Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in January 1933,
Göring was appointed as minister without portfolio. He
was one of only two other Nazis named to the Cabinet (the
other being Wilhelm Frick) even though the Nazis were the
largest party in the Reichstag and nominally the senior partner
in the Nazi-DNVP coalition. However, in a little-noticed development,
he was named Interior Minister of Prussia a move which gave
him command of the largest state police force in Germany.
Soon after taking office, he began filling the political and
intelligence units of the Prussian police with Nazis. On 26
April 1933, he formally detached these units from the regular
Prussian police and reorganized them under his command as
the Gestapo, a secret state police intended to serve the Nazi
cause.
Göring was one of the key figures in the process of Gleichschaltung
(forcible coordination) that established the Nazi dictatorship.
For example, in 1933, Göring banned all Roman Catholic
newspapers in Germany, not only to suppress resistance to
National Socialism but also to deprive the population of alternative
forms of association and means of political communication.
In the National Socialist Regime's early years, Göring
served as minister in various key positions at both the Reich
(German national) level and other levels as required. For
example, in the state of Prussia, Göring was responsible
for the economy as well as re-armament.
In 1934/35, Göring, acting as Prussian Prime Minister,
was intimately involved in the dubious acquisition of the
Guelph Treasure of Brunswick (the so-called Welfenschatz)
- a unique collection of early medieval religious precious
metalwork, at that time in the hands of some persecuted German-Jewish
art dealers from Frankfurt, and one of the most important
church treasuries to have survived from medieval Germany.
On 20 April 1934, Göring and
Heinrich
Himmler agreed to put aside their differences (largely
because of mutual hatred and growing dread of the SA or Sturmabteilung)
and Göring transferred full authority over the Gestapo
to
Heinrich
Himmler, who was also named chief of all German police
forces outside Prussia. With the Gestapo under their control,
Heinrich
Himmler and
Reinhard
Heydrich plotted with Göring to use it with the SS
to crush the SA. Göring retained Special Police Battalion
Wecke, which he converted to a paramilitary unit attached
to the Landespolizei (State Police), Landespolizeigruppe General
Göring. This formation participated in the Night of the
Long Knives, when the SA leaders were purged. Göring
was head of the Forschungsamt (FA), which secretly monitored
telephone and radio communications, the FA was connected to
the SS, the SD, and Abwehr intelligence services.
In 1936, he became Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan for
German rearmament, where he effectively took control of the
economy as economics minister Hjalmar Schacht became increasingly
reluctant to pursue rapid rearmament and eventually resigned.
The vast steel plant Reichswerke Hermann Göring was named
after him. He gained great influence with
Adolf
Hitler (who placed a high value on rearmament). He never
seemed to accept the
Adolf
Hitler Myth quite as much as
Joseph
Goebbels and
Heinrich
Himmler, but remained loyal nevertheless.
In 1938, Göring forced out the War Minister, Field Marshal
Werner von Blomberg, and the Army commander, General von Fritsch.
They had welcomed
Adolf
Hitler's accession in 1933, but then annoyed him by criticising
his plans for expansionist wars. Göring, who had been
best man at Blomberg's recent wedding to a 26-year-old typist,
discovered that Frau Blomberg had a criminal record for posing
for pornographic photos in 1932, which Göring misrepresented
as being for prostitution as a way of smearing her husband.
This led to Blomberg's resigning. Fritsch was accused of homosexual
activity and, though completely innocent, resigned in shock
and disgust. He was later exonerated by a court of honor presided
over by Göring.
Also in 1938, Göring played a key role in the Anschluss
(annexation) of Austria. At the height of the crisis, Göring
spoke on the telephone to Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg.
Göring announced Germany's intent to march into Austria,
and threatened war and the destruction of Austria if there
was any resistance. Schuschnigg collapsed, and the German
army marched into Austria without resistance.
Personal properties
The confiscation of Jewish property gave Göring great
opportunities to amass a personal fortune. Some properties
he seized himself, or acquired for a nominal price. In other
cases, he collected bribes for allowing others to steal Jewish
property. He also took kickbacks from industrialists for favourable
decisions as Four Year Plan director, and money for supplying
arms to the Spanish Republicans in the Spanish Civil War via
Pyrkal in Greece (although Germany was supporting Franco and
the Nationalists).
Göring also collected several other offices, such as
Reichsforst- und Jägermeister (Reich Master of the Forest
and Hunt), for which he received high government salaries.
His Chief Huntsman was Walter Frevert.
In 1933, Göring acquired a vast estate in the Schorfheide
Forest in Brandenburg, 40 km (25 mi) northeast of Berlin,
and built his great manor house there. It was named Carinhall
in memory of his first wife Carin. He exulted in aristocratic
trappings, such as a coat of arms, and ceremonial swords and
daggers, such as the Wedding Sword (an oversized broadsword
with elaborate gold hilt presented to Göring at his 1935
wedding to Emmy). He also owned many uniforms and jewelry.
Göring was also noted for his patronage of music, especially
opera. He entertained frequently and lavishly. Most infamously,
he collected art, looting from numerous museums (some in Germany
itself), stealing from Jewish collectors, or buying for grossly
discounted prices in occupied countries.
When Göring was promoted to the unique rank of Reichsmarschall,
he designed an elaborate personal flag for himself. The design
included a German eagle, swastika, and crossed marshal's batons
on one side, and on the other the Großkreuz des Eisernen
Kreuzes (Grand Cross of the Iron Cross) between four Luftwaffe
eagles. He had the flag carried by a personal standard-bearer
at all public occasions.
Göring was known for his extravagant tastes and garish
clothing.
Hans-Ulrich
Rudel, the top Stuka pilot of the war, recalled twice
meeting Göring dressed in outlandish costumes: first,
a medieval hunting costume, practicing archery with his doctor,
and second, dressed in a russet toga fastened with a golden
clasp, smoking an abnormally large pipe. Italian Foreign Minister
Ciano once noted Göring wearing a fur coat looking like
what a high grade prostitute wears to the opera. His personal
car dubbed The Blue Goose was an aviation blue Mercedes 540K
Special Cabriolet. It had luxurious features, as well as special
additions, including bullet-proof glass and bomb resistant
armor for protection, and modifications to allow him to fit
his girth behind the wheel.
Though he liked to be called der Eiserne (the Iron Man), the
once-dashing and muscular fighter pilot had become corpulent.
He was however one of the few Nazi leaders who did not take
offence at hearing jokes about himself, no matter how rude,
taking them as a sign of his popularity. Germans joked about
his ego, saying that he would wear an admiral's uniform to
take a bath, and his obesity, joking that he sits down on
his stomach.
Göring and foreign policy
Göring was certainly an ardent Nazi and utterly loyal
to
Adolf Hitler.
But his preferences in foreign policy were different. The
German diplomatic historian Klaus Hildebrand in his study
of German foreign policy in the Nazi era noted that besides
Adolf Hitler's
foreign policy programme that there were three rival programs
supported by factions in the National Socialist Party, whom
Hildebrand dubbed the agrarians, the revolutionary socialists,
and the Wilhelmine Imperialists.
Göring was the most prominent of the Wilhelmine Imperialists.
This group wanted to restore the German frontiers of 1914,
regain the pre-1914 overseas empire, and make Eastern Europe
Germany's exclusive sphere of influence. This was a much more
limited set of goals than
Adolf
Hitler's dream of Lebensraum to be carved out with merciless
racial wars. By contrast, Göring and the Wilhelmine Imperialist
faction were more guided by traditional Machtpolitik in their
foreign policy conceptions. Furthermore, they expected to
achieve their goals within the established international order.
While not rejecting war as an option, they preferred diplomacy
and sought political domination in eastern Europe rather than
the military conquests envisioned by
Adolf
Hitler. They also rejected
Adolf
Hitler's mystical vision of war as a necessary ordeal
for the nation, and of perpetual war as desirable. Göring
himself feared that a major war might interfere with his luxurious
lifestyle. Göring's advocacy of this policy led to his
temporary exclusion by
Adolf
Hitler for a time in 1938 to 1939 from foreign policy
decisions. Göring's unwillingness to offer a major challenge
to
Adolf Hitler
prevented him from offering any serious resistance to
Adolf
Hitler's policies, and the Wilhelmine Imperialists had
no real influence.
Göring had some private doubts about the wisdom of
Adolf
Hitler's policies attacking Poland, which he felt would
cause a world war, and was anxious to see a compromise solution.
This was especially the case as the Forschungsamt (FA), Göring's
private intelligence agency, had broken the codes the British
Embassy in Berlin used to communicate with London. The FA's
work showed that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
was determined to go to war if Germany invaded Poland in 1939.
This directly contradicted the advice given to
Adolf
Hitler by Foreign Minister
Joachim
von Ribbentrop (a man whom Göring loathed at the
best of times) that Chamberlain would not honor the to guarantee
he had given Poland in March 1939 if Germany attacked that
country.
In the summer of 1939, Göring and the rest of the Wilhelmine
Imperialists made a last ditch effort to assert their foreign
policy program. Göring was involved in desperate attempts
to avert a war by using various amateur diplomats, such as
his deputy Helmuth Wohltat at the Four Year Plan organization,
British civil servant Sir Horace Wilson, newspaper proprietor
Lord Kemsley, and would be peace-makers like Swedish businessmen
Axel Wenner-Gren and Birger Dahlerus, who served as couriers
between Göring and various British officials. All of
these efforts came to naught because
Adolf
Hitler (who much preferred
Joachim
von Ribbentrop assessment of Britain to Göring's)
would not be deterred from attacking Poland in 1939, and the
Wilhelmine Imperialists were unwilling and unable to challenge
Adolf Hitler
despite their reservations about his foreign policy.
Complicity in the Holocaust
Göring was responsible for the Nuremberg laws and for
charging Jews with a billion reichsmark fine for Kristallnacht,
which he never denied at his trial. However, his role in and
awareness of the extermination of the Jews is much more controversial.
Göring claimed at Nuremberg that he was not anti-Semitic,
and it is generally accepted that the anti-Semitism of
Joseph
Goebbels and
Heinrich
Himmler was far stronger than that of Göring, who
was more cynical than ideological in all of his attitudes.
He occasionally intervened to shield individual Jews from
harm, (including his own deputy,
Erhard
Milch) sometimes in exchange for a bribe, sometimes after
a request from his wife Emmy or his anti-Nazi brother Albert.
Göring despised
Heinrich
Himmler and he often sparred with
Joseph
Goebbels who was in favor of more radical measures against
the Jews. However, some of the quotes provided at the Nuremberg
trial show his apparent antisemitic side, though much milder
than that of
Joseph
Goebbels or
Heinrich
Himmler, some apparently said as ironic retorts to Joseph
Goebbels. Despite his sporadic actions to help individuals,
Göring was deemed complicit in the Holocaust: he was
the highest figure in the Nazi hierarchy to issue a written
order for the complete solution of the Jewish Question, as
he issued a memo to
Reinhard
Heydrich to organize the practical details. Göring,
who issued this memo in place of
Adolf
Hitler, which he occasionally did, wrote in the memo to
submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative,
financial and material measures necessary for carrying out
the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question. This was
in July 1941, many months before, according to most historians,
the decision to exterminate Jews was taken. Göring, who
at Nuremberg trial unrepentantly took responsibility for his
actions, as opposed to most other defendants who blamed
Adolf
Hitler, maintained to his death that this meant relocation
of Jews, and that he did not know of the subsequent extermination.
Following this transfer of the Jewish question to
Reinhard
Heydrich and
Heinrich
Himmler, at the Wannsee Conference in early 1942, the
Holocaust was planned with
Reinhard
Heydrich as the most senior officer present, reporting
directly to
Heinrich
Himmler.
In 1989, historian and noted Nazi sympathizer David Irving
published a biography of Göring, which in part said that
he had disapproved of the persecution of Jews and offered
documented evidence as proof. Much of Irving's work, however,
has been discredited, and Göring's complicity in the
Final Solution remains a point of contention.
Head of the Luftwaffe
When the Nazis took power, Göring was Minister of Civil
Air Transport, which was a screen for the build-up of German
military aviation, prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles.
When
Adolf
Hitler repudiated Versailles, in 1935, the Luftwaffe was
unveiled, with Göring as Minister and Oberbefehlshaber
(Supreme Commander). In 1938, he became the first Generalfeldmarschall
(Field Marshal) of the Luftwaffe this promotion also made
him the highest ranking officer in Germany. Göring directed
the rapid creation of this new branch of service. Within a
few years, Germany produced large numbers of the world's most
advanced military aircraft.
Göring with
Erhard
Milch, 12 October 1935In 1936, Göring at
Adolf
Hitler's direction sent several hundred aircraft along
with several thousand air and ground crew, to assist the Nationalists
in the Spanish Civil War. This became known as the Condor
Legion.
By 1939, the Luftwaffe was one of the most advanced and powerful
air forces in the world.
Göring's army
Unusually, the Luftwaffe also included its own ground troops,
which became in a sense, Göring's private army. German
Fallschirmjäger (parachute and glider) troops were organised
as part of the Luftwaffe, not as part of the Army. Subject
to rigorous training, they came to be regarded as elite troops,
much the same as the paratroopers of the British and American
armies. Fallschirmjäger units were awarded 134 Knight's
Cross of the Iron Crosses between the years 1940 to 1945.
In addition to the Fallschirmjäger, there were also the
Luftwaffe Field Divisions, which were organised as basic infantry
units but were led by officers with little training for ground
combat, and generally performed badly as combat troops as
a result. The Hermann Göring Panzerdivision was also
raised and served with distinction in the Italian campaign.
Second World War
Göring was skeptical of
Adolf
Hitler's war plans. He believed Germany was not prepared
for a new conflict and, in particular, that his Luftwaffe
was not yet ready to beat the British Royal Air Force (RAF).
However, once
Adolf
Hitler decided on war, Göring supported him completely.
On 1 September 1939, the first day of the war,
Adolf
Hitler spoke to the Reichstag. In this speech, he designated
Göring as his successor if anything should befall me.
Initially, decisive German victories followed quickly one
after the other. The Luftwaffe destroyed the Polish Air Force
within two weeks. The Fallschirmjäger seized key airfields
in Norway and captured Fort Eben-Emael in Belgium. German
air-to-ground attacks served as the flying artillery of the
Panzer troops in the blitzkrieg of France. Leave it to my
Luftwaffe became Göring's perpetual gloat.
After the defeat of France,
Adolf
Hitler awarded Göring the Grand Cross of the Iron
Cross for his successful leadership. By a decree on 19 July
1940,
Adolf
Hitler promoted Göring to the rank of Reichsmarschall
des Grossdeutschen Reiches (Reich Marshal of the Greater German
Reich), a special rank which made him senior to all other
Army and Luftwaffe Field Marshals. It also reinforced his
status as
Adolf
Hitler's chosen successor, as a result of which the Führer
gave Göring personal use of Kransberg Castle.
Göring's political and military careers were at their
peak. Göring had already received the Knight's Cross
of the Iron Cross on 30 September 1939 as Commander in Chief
of the Luftwaffe.
Göring promised
Adolf
Hitler that the Luftwaffe would quickly destroy the RAF,
or break British morale with devastating air raids. He personally
directed the first attacks on Britain from his private luxury
train. But the Luftwaffe failed to gain control of the skies
in the Battle of Britain. This was
Adolf
Hitler's first defeat. Britain withstood the worst Luftwaffe
bombers could do for the eight months of the Blitz without
being cowed by circumstances. However, the damage inflicted
on British cities largely maintained Göring's prestige.
The Luftwaffe conducted bombings of Belgrade in April 1941,
and Fallschirmjäger captured Crete from the British Army
the following month.
Eastern front
If Göring had been skeptical about war against Britain
and France, he was absolutely certain that a new campaign
against the Soviet Union was doomed to defeat. After trying,
completely in vain, to convince
Adolf
Hitler to give up Operation Barbarossa, he embraced the
campaign.
Adolf
Hitler still relied on him completely. On 29 June,
Adolf
Hitler composed a special 'testament', which was kept
secret till the end of the war. This formally designated Göring
as my deputy in all my offices if
Adolf
Hitler was unable to function as dictator of Germany,
and his successor if he died. Ironically, Göring did
not know the contents of this testament, which was marked
To be opened only by the Reichsmarschall, until after leaving
Berlin in April 1945 for Berchtesgaden, where it had been
kept.
The Luftwaffe shared in the initial victories in the east,
destroying thousands of Soviet aircraft. But as Soviet resistance
grew and the weather turned bad, the Luftwaffe became overstretched
and exhausted.
Göring by this time had lost interest in administering
the Luftwaffe. That duty was left to others like Udet and
Jeschonnek. Aircraft production lagged and Udet killed himself
in November 1941. Yet Göring persisted in outlandish
promises. When the Soviets surrounded a German army in Stalingrad
in 1942, Göring encouraged
Adolf
Hitler to fight for the city rather than retreat. He asserted
that the Luftwaffe would deliver 500 short tons (450 t) per
day of supplies to the trapped force. In fact, no more than
100 short tons (91 t) were ever delivered in a day, and usually
much less. While Göring's men struggled to fly in the
savage Russian winter, Göring celebrated his 50th birthday.
Göring was in charge of exploiting the vast industrial
resources captured during the war, particularly in the Soviet
Union. This proved to be an almost total failure, and little
of the available potential was effectively harnessed for the
service of the German military machine.
Bomber war
On 9 August 1939, Göring boasted The Ruhr will not be
subjected to a single bomb. If an enemy bomber reaches the
Ruhr, my name is not Hermann Göring: you can call me
Meier! (I want to be called Meier if . is a German idiom to
express that something is impossible. Meier in several spelling
variants is the second most common surname in Germany.) He
also said he would eat his hat.
But as early as 1940, British aircraft raided targets in Germany,
debunking Göring's assurance that the Reich would never
be attacked the British were throughout the war destined to
be his personal undoing. However, the initial raids were unsuccessful
in inflicting significant damage to German infrastructure,
allowing Göring to reassure the public especially as
the German air defense network improved. However, in 1942
the British Area Bombing Directive was issued, the main workhorse
aircraft of the later part of the war came into service (the
Halifax and Lancaster made up the backbone of the Command,
and had a longer range, higher speed and much greater bomb
load than the earlier aircraft the classic aircraft of the
Pathfinders, the de Havilland Mosquito, also made its appearance)
and America began transferring long-range strategic bombers
to England for further air raids.
By 1942, hundreds of Allied bombers were bombing Germany occasionally,
there were as many as 1,000. The Luftwaffe responded with
night fighters and anti-aircraft guns, but entire cities such
as Cologne (Köln) and Hamburg were destroyed anyway.
Göring was still nominally in charge, but in practice
he had little to do with operations. When Göring visited
the devastated cities, civilians called out Hello, Mr. Meier.
How's your hat? By the end of the war, Berlin's air raid sirens
were bitterly known to the city's residents as Meier's trumpets,
or Meier's hunting horns. Civilians would also call the bomber
war a defeat in every city.
A museum-preserved example of a welded-together
DB
610 engine as Goering called them, used on later versions
of the
Heinkel
He 177. The Luftwaffe's own efforts at having a strategic
bomber force had been crippled even before the war began,
from the death in 1936 of General Walter Wever, the Luftwaffe's
primary promoter for Germany to have a strategic bombing capability,
and a subsequent placement of greater value on medium bombers
such as the
Heinkel
He 111, and Schnellbomber fast medium bombers, such as
the
Junkers
Ju 88. Belated efforts in replacement designs of greater
performance in altitude, speed and range, such as the Bomber
B development program and Amerika Bomber trans-oceanic range
strategic bomber design competition, either never worked out
due to inadequate powerplants or the inability to complete
the development of new airframe designs from the constantly
worsening war and aircraft production facility situation.
These problems led to the Luftwaffe continuing to primarily
use the pre-war origin medium bomber designs, or barely upgraded
versions of them. The only German aircraft design of a comparable
capability and size to Allied heavy bombers such as the B-17
to see wartime service, the troubled
Heinkel
He 177 Greif, had been afflicted with having to use a
set of four
DB
601 engines paired up into twin power systems as the
DB
606, partly due to its mis-assignment as a giant Stuka
from its beginnings heavily influencing its design. By September
1942, Goering had roundly derided the
DB
606, and its later development, the
DB
610, as fire-prone, monstrous zusammengeschweißte
Motoren, or welded-together engines, that could not be properly
maintained in service as installed in the
He
177A, the one German aircraft design that Goering is said
to have despised the most during the war years.
Göring's prestige, reputation, and influence with
Adolf
Hitler all declined, especially after the Stalingrad debacle.
Adolf Hitler
could not publicly repudiate him without embarrassment, but
contact between them largely stopped. Göring withdrew
from the military and political scene to enjoy the pleasures
of life as a wealthy and powerful man. His reputation for
extravagance made him particularly unpopular as ordinary Germans
began to suffer deprivation.
End of the war
In 1945, Göring fled the Berlin area with trainloads
of treasures for the Nazi alpine resort in Berchtesgaden.
Soon afterward, the Luftwaffe's chief of staff, Karl Koller,
arrived with unexpected news:
Adolf
Hitler who had by this time conceded that Germany had
lost had suggested that Göring would be better suited
to negotiate peace terms. To Koller, this seemed to indicate
that
Adolf
Hitler wanted Göring to take over the leadership
of the Reich.
Göring was initially unsure of what to do, largely because
he did not want to give
Martin
Bormann, who now controlled access to
Adolf
Hitler, a window to seize greater power. He thought that
if he waited he'd be accused of dereliction of duty. On the
other hand, he feared being accused of treason if he did try
to assume power. He then pulled his copy of
Adolf
Hitler's secret decree of 1941 from a safe. It clearly
stated that Göring was not only
Adolf
Hitler's designated successor, but was to act as his deputy
if
Adolf Hitler
ever became incapacitated. Göring, Koller, and Hans Lammers
the state secretary of the Reich Chancellery all agreed that
Adolf Hitler
faced almost certain death by staying in Berlin to lead the
defence of the capital against the Soviets. They also agreed
that by staying in Berlin,
Adolf
Hitler had incapacitated himself from governing and Göring
had a clear duty to assume power as
Adolf
Hitler's deputy.
On 23 April, as Soviet troops closed in around Berlin, Göring
sent a carefully worded telegram by radio to
Adolf
Hitler, asking
Adolf
Hitler to confirm that he was to take over the total leadership
of the Reich. He added that if he did not hear back from
Adolf
Hitler by 22:00, he would assume
Adolf
Hitler was incapacitated, and would assume leadership
of the Reich. A few minutes later, he sent a radio message
to
Joachim
von Ribbentrop stating that if the foreign minister got
no further word, he was to come to Berchtesgaden immediately.
However,
Martin
Bormann received the telegram before
Adolf
Hitler did. He portrayed it as an ultimatum to surrender
power or face a coup d'état. The message to
Joachim
von Ribbentrop, suggesting that Göring was already
acting as
Adolf
Hitler's successor, provided further ammunition for
Martin
Bormann. On 25 April,
Adolf
Hitler issued a telegram to Göring telling him that
he had committed high treason and gave him the option of resigning
all of his offices in exchange for his life. However, not
long after that,
Martin
Bormann ordered the SS in Berchtesgaden to arrest Göring.
In his last will and testament,
Adolf
Hitler dismissed Göring from all of his offices and
expelled him from the National Socialist Party.
Shortly after
Adolf
Hitler completed his will,
Martin
Bormann ordered the SS to execute Göring, his wife,
and their daughter (
Adolf
Hitler's own goddaughter) if Berlin were to fall. But
this order was ignored. Instead, the Görings and their
SS captors moved together, to the same Schloß Mauterndorf
where Göring had spent much of his childhood and which
he had inherited (along with Burg Veldenstein) from his godfather's
widow in 1938. (Göring had arranged for preferential
treatment for the woman, and protected her from confiscation
and arrest as the widow of a wealthy Jew.)
Capture, trial, and death
Göring surrendered to U.S. soldiers on 9 May 1945 in
Bavaria. He was flown by United States Army pilot Mayhew Foster
from Austria to Germany, where he was debriefed and then in
November of that same year tried in Nuremberg for war crimes.
He was the third-highest-ranking National Socialist official
tried at Nuremberg, behind Reich President (former Admiral)
Karl
Dönitz and former Deputy Führer
Rudolf
Hess. Göring's last days were spent with Captain
Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking American intelligence officer
and psychologist, who had access to all the prisoners held
in the Nuremberg jail. Gilbert classified Göring as having
an I.Q. of 138, the same as
Karl
Dönitz. Gilbert kept a journal which he later published
as Nuremberg Diary. Here he describes Göring on the evening
of 18 April 1946, as the trials were halted for a three-day
Easter recess:
Sweating in his cell in the evening, Göring was defensive
and deflated and not very happy over the turn the trial was
taking. He said that he had no control over the actions or
the defense of the others, and that he had never been anti-Semitic
himself, had not believed these atrocities, and that several
Jews had offered to testify on his behalf.
In taking the witness stand during his part of the trial,
Göring claimed that he was not antisemitic however,
Albert
Speer reported that in the prison yard at Nuremberg, after
someone made a remark about Jewish survivors in Hungary, he
had overheard Göring say, So, there are still some there?
I thought we had knocked off all of them. Somebody slipped
up again. Despite his claims of non-involvement, he was confronted
with orders he had signed for the murder of Jews and prisoners
of war.
Though he defended himself vigorously, and actually appeared
to be winning the trial early on (partly by building popularity
with the court audience by making jokes and finding holes
in the prosecution's case), he was found guilty and sentenced
to death by hanging. The judgment stated that.
There is nothing to be said in mitigation. For Göring
was often, indeed almost always, the moving force, second
only to his leader. He was the leading war aggressor, both
as political and as military leader he was the director of
the slave labour programme and the creator of the oppressive
programme against the Jews and other races, at home and abroad.
All of these crimes he has frankly admitted. On some specific
cases there may be conflict of testimony, but in terms of
the broad outline, his own admissions are more than sufficiently
wide to be conclusive of his guilt. His guilt is unique in
its enormity. The record discloses no excuses for this man.
Göring made an appeal, offering to accept the court's
death sentence if he were shot as a soldier instead of hanged
as a common criminal, but the court refused.
Defying the sentence imposed by his captors, he committed
suicide with a potassium cyanide capsule the night before
he was to be hanged. Göring who suffered from dermatitis
had hidden two cyanide capsules in jars of opaque skin cream.
It has been claimed that Göring befriended U.S. Army
Lieutenant Jack G. Wheelis, who was stationed at the Nuremberg
Trials and helped Göring obtain cyanide which had been
hidden among Göring's personal effects when they were
confiscated by the Army. In 2005, former U.S. Army Private
Herbert Lee Stivers claimed he gave Göring medicine hidden
inside a gift fountain pen from a German woman the private
had met and flirted with. Stivers served in the 1st Infantry
Division's 26th Infantry Regiment, who formed the honor guard
for the Nuremberg Trials. Stivers claims to have been unaware
of what the medicine he delivered actually was until after
Göring's death. Göring's biographer, David Irving,
has dismissed this claim as pure fabrication. Because he committed
suicide, his dead body was displayed by the gallows for the
witnesses of the executions.
After their deaths, the bodies of Göring and the executed
Nazi leaders were cremated in the East Cemetery, Munich (Ostfriedhof).
His ashes were disposed of in the Isar river in Munich.
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